Natalie and Mordi, in Istanbul for the weekend, arrested after a selfie: “They are spies” – Corriere.it

The two had photographed themselves in front of the former presidential palace. Tel Aviv minister: denies. New reason for clash between the two nations that have turned from almost allies into adversaries after the rise of Erdogan and his support for Hamas

From our correspondent
JERUSALEM – The selfie with Maiden’s Tower in the background. The cup of Turkish coffee, symbol of the crossing in the middle of the Bosphorus. The photos with the telephoto lens from the hill of Çamlica, under the 369 meters of the television antenna, one of the symbols of Recep Tayyip Eerdogan’s upward aspirations.

Natalie and Mordi Oknin, bus drivers for work, Israeli tourists for a long weekend in Istanbul, I am accused of political and military espionage. a waiter saw them point their cell phones at one of the president’s buildings, or rather the Palace, the largest in the whole country, the first to be built in a European style at the time of Sultan Abdul Mejid. The modern sultan is even more suspicious, his loyalists even more so than him. That Dolmabahçe is no longer an official residence since 1923, it has become a museum, it can be visited by paying a ticket, did not stop the waiter who denounced the couple and did not persuade the judge to let them go because he was recently ordered not to photograph. the building. The arrest was extended for another twenty days, the magistrates claim that the two also documented checkpoints around the building and military installations and then turned the images “to third parties”.

From Modiin, a suburb for commuters between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, relatives assure them that those shots were for them – they are also on Facebook – they should have sent home the enthusiasm for the trip after the two-year blockade caused by the pandemic. They are now considered evidence against. Yair Lapid, the Israeli foreign minister, stepped in to clarify that the Oknin “do not work for any Israeli agency”, the case is becoming diplomatic, another element of clash between the two nations that from almost allies turned into adversaries in the Levant after the rise of Erdogan and its support for the Hamas fundamentalists in power over the Gaza Strip.

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